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Law of Karma
mankind. No knowledge, according to Swami Vivekananda, comes from outside. Newton discovered the principle of gravitation. It was in his own mind, the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that we get, is in the mind. The external world is only the suggestion, the occasion which sets us to study our own mind. All knowledge, therefore, sccular or spiritual, is in the human mind. In many cases it is not discovered, but remains covered. Knowledge exists in the inind in the same way in which fire in a piece of flint. We may find in our own selves all our feelings and actions, our tears and smiles, our joys and our sorrows, our weeping and our laughter, our praises and our blames. The result is what we are. All these things taken together are called karma, or work or action. Every physical and mental blow that is given to the soul, by which its own power is discovered, is karma. In this way, we are all working all the time. Talking, breathing, listening etc., all physical and mental doings are karma, and it leaves its marks on us.
There are certain deeds which are the sum total of large number of smaller deeds. For a clear-cut conception, Viveka. nanda gives here a simile of the waves of sea. To quote him : "If we stand near the seashore and hear the waves dashing against the shingle, we think it is such a great noise, and yet we know that one wave is really composed of millions and millions of minute waves. Each one of these is making a noise and yet we do not catch it. It is only when they become the big aggregate that we hear."24
Similarly, every pulsation of heart is work. Certain kinds of work we hear and become tangible to us. But they are the aggregate of small works. According to Swamiji, if we really want to judge the character of a man, we should not look at his great performances but we should watch the most common doings of that man which are the real characteristics of his life.
For Swami Vivekananda, Karma leaves most tremendous power on the character of a man. Man is, as it were, a centre, and is attracting all the powers of the universe towards him. Such a centre is the real man, the almighty, the Omniscient, and be draws the whole universe towards himself. Good and
